Cute Doggy (Chihuahua) Chiffon Cake

How much is that doggy at the window? =p

This is a creation for my friend's son who loves dogs! She gave me free rein on the design so I ended up making chihuahua-inspired design as I love dogs hehe.

The base cake is vanilla-pandan chiffon cake. I was trying to simulate green pastures lol. My cake is cream colour because I didn't use a reduced egg yolk recipe this round =).

Vanilla Pandan Spots Chiffon Cake  (8-inch tube pan)
Egg yolk batter
6 egg yolks
40 g castor sugar
79 g vegetable/corn oil
86 g water
10 vanilla extract
120 g Prima cake flour, sifted
1 tsp pandan paste

Meringue
8 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
90 g castor sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Prepare a tray of water under the lowest rack for steambaking. *Optional but helps to increase moisture and control oven temperature for ogura-like texture.

2. Beat egg yolks with sugar with whisk till pale and light before stirring in oil, water, and vanilla extract.

3. Add in sieved flour and whisk till no trace of flour found. Divide the batter into two. To the first portion, leave plain. To the second portion, add pandan paste.

4. Meringue: Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with ¼ tsp cream of tartar till frothy. Add in half the castor sugar for meringue and whip till soft peaks. Add in all the castor sugar and whip till firm peaks form or just to the point of reaching stiff peak.
*Firm peaks give finer, softer texture, especially with steam baking.

5. Divide the meringue into two each coloured batter. Gently quickly fold in the meringue into respective batter in 3 additions.

6. Spoon the pandan batter in cloud-like blobs in the pan, then fill the surrounding spaces with plain batter. Continue till the pan is 2-cm from the brim.

7. Bake the chiffon cake for 15 min at 160°C, then 150°C for 10 min and then 140°C for 25+ min, or until skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean.

8. Invert the chiffon cake once removed from oven and allow to cool completely.

9. Unmould the chiffon cake by hand (‘Hand Unmoulding Chiffon Cake for a Clean Finishing’ video tutorial).

The doggy was made by combining chiffon cakes baked from glass bowls (similar to my salted egg yolk chiffon chick cupcakes last year). The limbs were carved from chiffon cake. The facial features were cut from chiffon sheet cakes and glued with melted marshmallows. More about the Basic techniques of Deco Chiffon Cakes can be found in my new book Deco Chiffon Cake Basics.

Hope you have a blessed week!

With lots of love,
Susanne


Updates:

New Simplified Chinese Edition of Best Selling Deco Chiffon Cake Basics is coming in mid-Jan 2018!!
Preorders now till 5 Jan at special price here:

Books:

(13/11/17) Top 10 Non-fiction Bestsellers in Kinokuniya! Thank God and thank you!

(13/11/17): Thankful that Deco Chiffon Cake Basics is a Bestseller in Periplus (Indonesia) and Naiise (Malaysia/SG) too!! Thank you!